It never gets easier, telling Tom upsetting news. She could see it in his face too; neither of them particularly liked returning to those moments, reminders of dead friends and utter betrayal.

"Hey, sweetie, you alright?" She said as she sat upon his bed with him under the covers.

"Yeah." Tom smiled and nodded his head, sitting up.

"Tom…" She hesitated. "Later today," Another pause. "Mr. Hardy is going to be moving out."

Tom's face scrunched up in a manner of trying to figure out what she was trying to say. "Did something happen?"

"No sweetie, he- he's going to go back to live with his daughter for a while."

"Oh."

The silence grew rapidly, and she was painfully aware of his beside clock ticking away.

"Can I…go talk to him?" Pause. "By myself?"

She was taken aback by this request. "Yeah, of course." She stroked his back as he got out from under the sheets and leapt out of bed.

She sat in stunned silence for a moment after he left, then she went on to check on Fred.

….

She noticed Tom go back into his room after a short while, and she took that as her cue that it was safe for her to go to the kitchen.

When she reached him, he was putting food in Lily's bowl. She looked up at him expectantly, Lily following her example. After a while of them just staring at each other, she finally spoke up.

"…So?"

"'So' what?" He went to the sink to wash his hands.

"What did you guys talk about?"

"Just stuff, you know." He dried his hands and then turned his body toward her. "He asked if he could call me if he needed to and I told him to look after y-…Lily… and-"

"You know he really didn't like you once upon a time."

"Ah, I seem to recall you feeling the same way about me. Once upon a time." They grinned at each other as his hands found their way around her waist. She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

….

Everyone took a longer amount of time than usual eating their breakfast. She knew it was silly; it's not like time was going to stop just for them, or that if somehow they moved in slow motion, the rest of the world would too. She would get these fleeting thoughts, ones that wanted to speed up the process, to have him gone and for the dull ache in the pit of her stomach to become a quick sharp pain instead. It was the sound of the silverware clattering that pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Just leave them, I'll get to it later." She said as she made her way over to where he was in front of the sink.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." She held her hand out and looked up at him expectantly, wiggling her fingers of her outstretched hand and grinning at him. He smiled back at her, took her hand, and they made their way to the sofa where Tom was watching TV and Fred was playing with his toys in front of it. She cuddled up next to him as they waited for the cab.

"You sure you don't want me to drive you? I mean, it just seems silly for you to take a cab." She said quietly into his chest.

"It's fine. I wouldn't want to inconvenience you."

She turned her head towards him, moving away from his body slightly to make it easier to look at him. "It wouldn't-"

"Please." His voice cracked. "Don't make this harder than it already is." He squeezed her hand as he turned his face away.

She was left speechless and decided that silence, beside the faint sounds of the telly and Fred's imaginative babbling, was for the best. She settled back into his arms.

….

The moments after that all seemed like one massive blur. The next thing she knew, they all were outside waiting for the car to arrive, Tom holding on to Lily's leash, Alec holding on to his luggage, and her holding on to Fred's hand.

The car pulled up to the driveway and Lily started barking, wary of the stranger in her presence. Alec walked over to it, refusing the driver's offer of helping to put his luggage in the back. He walked back over to them, turning his attention first to Tom, who was still holding on to an intermittently vocal Lily.

"Tom." He paused. "Keep your nose clean, do what your mother says." Tom nodded as he patted him on the back, Lily's sparse barks turning into a low consistent growl.

"Yes, I hear you Lily." He said as he bent down to pet her. She kept her eyes focused on the car, moving her head to look around him to keep her field of vision. "The mean man is going to take me away from you, huh? Is that why you're upset?" he cooed, petting her head and scratching behind her ear to calm her down.

Ellie felt Fred's hand leave hers and reach for Alec, both of his hands grasping at the air because he wanted to be picked up. Alec went over to Fred and lifted him up to his side.

"Do you want mummy to hold you?" He moved over to hand Fred to her, but Fred turned his face away and rested his head on Alec's shoulder, putting his arms around Alec's neck while sucking on the dummy in his mouth.

"Sorry El, it looks like Fred's coming with me."

She laughed, her wet eyes finally letting a single tear fall down, and she reached up to rub Fred's back. Alec crouched down again, putting Fred back onto the pavement, and gently removed his arms from around him.

"I'll see you later, Fred." He kissed Fred's forehead and ruffled his hair as he stood back up.

His eyes were finally on her, and they stared at each other for a moment before he reached his arms around her, pulling her toward him and kissing her cheek as they embraced. Tears were now falling freely from her eyes, and when he pulled from the hug, she could see his glassy eyes glinting in the sunlight. It seemed a mockery that the weather was so beautiful on such a gloomy day.

"I'll call you when I arrive." He said as he wiped a fresh tear from her cheek. He said his final farewells to everyone as he walked away and got inside the car, giving one final wave as it took off, showing a sad smile through the car window. She mustered up all the strength she had to smile back, and she waved until the car was out of view.

….

She took the kids to the park that day, because she always thought that keeping busy would help get her mind off things. However, more often than not, she was thinking about how she wished that he were still there with them, and that didn't really help matters. Her mind was eased a bit as she received the call from him later in the day saying that he had arrived safely and was on the way to eat dinner with his daughter. She knew that it would all be worth it in the end.

Later that night she had trouble falling asleep, so she decided to venture around the house to try to make herself exhausted and speed up the process. She found herself in his old room and sat on the bed, running her hands along the bed sheets. She then decided to lie in the bed properly, but when she rested her head on the pillow she heard a strange sound, like that of crinkling paper.

She turned the bedside lamp on and reached in the pillowcase to find a piece of paper that was obviously crumpled up into a ball and then uncrumpled so it would lay flat. Across the top was her name in black ink, written in capital letters. The first few sentences written on the page were scratched out, but she could still make out what was previously written:

ELLIE

-I'm writing this because-

-I know you don't-

-I know we haven't-

Trying to write these words to you has proven to be a more difficult task than I had first anticipated. I'm not even sure if I'll ever show this to you - you know how much of a coward I can be.

She turned the paper over and noticed that the front and most of the back of the page was covered in his handwriting. Still holding the paper in her hands, she looked up, feeling guilty about reading it without him knowing, and she decided that she would fold it up and put it back in the pillowcase. Yawning as she fluffed up the pillow and smoothed out the sheets, she turned off the lamp and made it back to her empty, silent room, and burrowed herself under the covers.

….

She awoke that morning to the sun illuminating her bedroom, still taunting her in the worst way possible. She sighed, looking to the empty side of the bed next to her. Grabbing her phone, she looked at the time and noticed she had 3 new messages. She clicked on the icon and saw that they were all from him.

Day 1: Missing you already.

Also, someone promised to show me how to use this video chat thing, so be prepared :P

Just pretend I didn't use that face. Never again. Miss you.

She smiled, the sunlight in her room seeming a little less sinister.